February is African-American History Month, an annual observance for remembrance of important people and events in the history of the African diaspora. This observance is the most visible legacy of the son of former slaves and scholar Carter G. Woodson who held a Masters Degree from University of Chicago and a Ph.D from Harvard University one hundred years ago in 1912. He pioneered defining a category of history related to ethnic culture and race. African American women, stress and health:... Read more

*Apologies to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin.  Hope my African-American readers out there don’t go into apoplexy. Back in late 2011, I wrote a post titled, “A Conversation Long Overdue” which spoke about African-American Atheists.  This was sparked by a November 27, 2011 New York Timesdiscussing this group of people.  I wrote: It’s interesting that at this time in history with fundagelical x-tians trying to grab power in Washington, cracks in the Black church’s facade (the Eddie Long scandal for example),... Read more

A headline caught my eye this morning: “Indiana’s Largest Megachurch Faces New Foreclosure Proceedings.” It made me think of Steve Munsey, an Indiana prosperity preacher I watched in a Decatur, Georgia television studio in 2007, pleading for audience members and viewers to give their money to the Trinity Broadcasting Network. As it turns out, the story is about Munsey’s church, Family Christian Center, which claims to have a weekly attendance of 15,000, making it one of the largest churches in the country.... Read more

By Arlene Sanchez-WalshR3 ContributorPost was first published at Re-Generacion  There has been continued interest in the political behavior of evangelicals over the past few weeks. This discussion assumes that everyone who carries that mantle is white, and conservative, and that they read blogs about themselves, you would not know that there are any other demographic groups that comprise American evangelicalism other than whites if you cared to read the prognostications–and increasingly–I don’t care. Simultaneously, a discussion on the politics of... Read more

Arlene M. Sánchez-Walsh is associate professor of Church History & Latino/a Church Studies at Azusa Pacific University. This year she is visiting professor of Pentecostal Studies at Perkins School of Theology-SMU. Her first book, Latino Pentecostal Identity: Evangelical Faith, Self, and Society won the Hispanic Theological Initiative’s Book Award in 2005.  She has authored over a dozen articles and book chapters on the subject of Latino/a Pentecostalism, and has served as a media expert for outlets such as the New York... Read more

LENTEN PETITION CALLING FOR COMMON-SENSE MEASURES TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons (and daughters) of God. – Matthew 5:9 The 219th General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted the resolution, Gun Violence, Gospel Values: Mobilizing in Response to God’s Call, in exercise of its responsibility to help the whole church address matters of “social righteousness.” The resolution calls both the Church to support and the federal government to establish laws that will prevent... Read more

This past weekend was the 12th annual Florida State University Graduate Student Symposium (#fsugss on Twitter). Dr. Aaron Hughes from the University of Rochester was this year’s keynote speaker, and this year’s conference theme was the “Politics of Religion.” There were many great panels that took place over the weekend, and the presented papers covered all sorts of topics in the field. I’ll focus my reflections here on discussions of theory issues in our field; so, if theory isn’t your bag, this post may not be... Read more

In perhaps one of the most important biographies of a civil rights leader published, Professor Barbara Ransby has conveyed the epic life and struggle of a woman whose sheer skill, leadership, and ability to mobilize the marginalized and dispossessed to full participation in their fight for human dignity is almost unprecedented in American history. In her book, Ella Baker & The Black Freedom Movement, Professor Ransby documents the life of Ella Baker, a black woman born to a middle-class family in... Read more

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by Kamilah Hall Sharp R3 Contributor Typically people think of a new year as a time of new beginnings, new opportunities and a time for trying out new resolutions.  The one thing I have come to realize is the start of a new year is the beginning of tax season.  While some are dreading gathering documents, preparing their tax returns and possibly having to write a check there are others who have a completely different view of this time of... Read more